Scrivener and Other Writing Tutorials, Tips and Frequently Asked Questions

Scrivener's Labels and Status Stamps are tags that you can assign to documents for sorting purposes

The main difference between labels and status stamps is that they show up differently and labels have colours associated with them, whilst status stamps do not. You can only assign one label and one status stamp to each document.

You can add them to a document directly from the Binder or Corkboard by right clicking on it and choosing Label or Status from the dropdown menu.

Add them from Outliner view by clicking on the up/down arrows.

Add them via the footerbar of the Inspector menu.

Create your own Labels and Status Stamps

To apply your own criteria to either labels or status stamps click on Edit… in their dropdown menu. If you are on Scrivener 3 you can go to Project > Project Settings and choose them from the list in the sidebar.

In previous versions of Scrivener the dialogue box looks a little different but the principle is the same.

Changing the Custom Title

By default when you open a dropdown menu to assign a label or status stamp you will find the words label and status as options in the menu.

However, in the Project Settings menu where it says Custom Title, you can change this title to any metadata that suits your project.

But whatever you typed in will replace the word Label in your dropdown menus when you right click. The same applies if you change the Custom Title for status stamps.

If you start your Scrivener project in a template you will find the template has already customized the Custom Title.

I have started in a Recipe Template which is set to Time, but I am going to set it to Degree of Difficulty.

Now it shows as Degree of Difficulty wherever Label used to be when you right click or go to View in the main menu.

Customize the Labels

Open the Project Settings menu again to customize the actual labels.

As I have changed my label criteria I no longer want the Time labels so I select all of them and hit the - symbol

Hit the + symbol to add a new category. You can have as many as you like.

If you don’t like the colors click inside the color dot to bring up the colors menu. Make sure your label colors are noticably different from each other.

When you are done, click on okay.

Assigning your new labels to your documents

Once you have labels you need to assign them to your documents.

From the Binder or the Corkboard; right click and choose Label, or in my case, Degree of Difficulty. From the Outliner; click on the up/down arrows

And from the Inspector window; open the label menu from the footerbar.

Decide in which regions of the user interface you want to view your Labels

Once your documents have labels assigned to them you can customise the way you view them. By default you will already be able to see them in the footerbar of the Inspector menu and as a dot in the Outliner view.

To View labels go to Main Menu > View > Use Color In

Note that the default will be "Use Label Color in" but if you changed your Custom Title this will say "Use 'Your Title' color in."

If you select Binder a color dot will appear in the Binder for each label:

If you select both the Binder and Use Full Width in Binder the whole title field in the Binder will have the label color:

If you select Icons the icons will be colored. They will also be colored when in Outliner and Corkboard mode:

If you select Index Cards your whole index card will be colored and so will the Synopsis field in the Inspector:

If you don’t want the entire card colored or if you don’t want your Synopsis window colored

Uncheck Index Cards from the Use Color In menu

This time select Corkboard Options and then Show Colors Along Edges.

Managing Labels and Status Stamps in Outliner Mode

In Outliner View mode, you have columns for labels and status stamps which you get from the columns dropdown menu. Notice my Label option has changed to Degree of Difficulty.

If you choose Outliner Rows from the Use Color In menu the whole row will be colored instead of the default dot.

Remove Labels

To remove any label views just go back to View > Use Color in, and uncheck it.

Working with Status Stamps

Assigning status stamps works much the same way as assigning labels.

Open the Project Settings menu and choose Status List from the sidebar.

The template you started in will have customized the Custom Title. The recipe template has called it Rating and created star ratings for each status stamp. Change the Custom Title if you want. Select all the star ratings and delete them by clicking on the - symbol, and add your own criteria by clicking on the + symbol.

When you are done, click on OK.

Assigning Status Stamps

Now you can assign status stamps to your documents in the same way you assigned labels.

As with labels, in Outliner mode you can add Status Stamps quickly via the up/down arrows.

In Scrivenings mode or in Corkboard mode right click on a document and choose a status from the dropdown list. Notice that my status stamp option now says Status Stamps because I changed it in the Custom Title field in the Project Settings menu.

Darken Your Status Stamp

If you needed your status stamps to be a little darker on top of your index cards in Corkboard Mode:

In Scrivener 3 for Mac go to Scrivener > Preferences

Open the Appearance tab

Open the Corkboard menu from the list in the sidebar

Make sure you are in the Options tab.

Adjust the opacity of the status stamps. You can see them get darker on your index cards as you move the slider across.

In previous versions of Scrivener on Mac

Got to Scrivener > Preferences. Make sure you are in the Corkboard Tab and look for the Status Stamp Opacity slider.

In Scrivener for WindowsGo to Main Menu > Tools > Options. Make sure you are in the Corkboard Tab and look for the Status Stamp Opacity slider.

Now that you understand more about labels and status stamps I hope you are going to find many ways of using them to organize your projects.

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